March 11th, 2009
by Kate McMillan
You may have an in-house design team, or you may outsource your design work. But are you getting the most our of your web designer(s)? Web designers do more than just push pixels & operate software. They are experienced with the way the web works and how users interact with it. They also understand the general principles of design: use of grids, whitespace, colors, etc..
Don’t waste your designer’s knowledge and experience. Don’t micro-manage them by asking them to make something “a little bigger” or “just a little to the left” — instead, present them with a problem, not a solution. Give the designer the freedom to find a solution that may even be better than your suggestion. A good designer creates solutions to problems, so if they present you with something you don’t think is quite right — explain what you dislike and let them come up with a solution for you.
In many cases this happens when there is a team of stakeholders involved in the design approval process. It’s natural for a company to want everyone to have a voice in the project, and not all committees have a negative impact. But often, design by committee leads to decisions being made in the moment, without much thought given to the overall implications of the decisions. Also, committee members may feel like they have to contribute something constructive – and with the best of intentions they don’t feel it’s good enough to say that there is nothing they would change. We know that design is subjective, but design by committee often leads to compromise because everyone is looking for common ground and a way to make an impact. But that won’t lead to the best design. At best, it leads to a hodgepodge of great individual ideas.
So, let your designer do what you hired them to do: design solutions.
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Simon Erich
(March 11th, 2009 at 5:35 pm)
Well said! And speaking for all of the web designers on planet Earth… we agree!
Kristin
(April 14th, 2009 at 4:13 pm)
So true! I usually ask right in the beginning of a project, who are the decision makers? That’s so if they start listing a dozen people I discuss early on how we can split up the group so its more efficient for the process.
Like you said, alot of people in a company just want to be apart of the process, that’s why its very important to make sure to have some kind of internal launch party to let everyone now about the exciting changes, and make them feel apart of the overall launch. If not, people tend to want to point out issues that really arent issues just becuase they want their voice heard.